John Kerry

President Trump ripped into John Kerry after a Globe story detailed the former secretary of state’s behind-the-scenes attempts to salvage the Iran nuclear deal, a signature Kerry accomplishment that Trump may choose to scuttle this week, the Boston Globe reports.

Said Trump: “The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal. He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!”

Secretary of State John Kerry accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel “of thwarting peace in the Middle East, speaking with a clarity and harshness almost never heard from American diplomats when discussing one of their closest and strongest allies,” the New York Times reports.

“With only 23 days left in his four-year turn as secretary of state, during which he made the search for peace in the Middle East one of his driving missions, Mr. Kerry said the Israeli government was undermining any hope of a two-state solution to its decades-long conflict with the Palestinians.”

Wall Street Journal: “Mr. Kerry’s decision to deliver a broad, hard-hitting speech on the Middle East just three weeks before leaving office reflected the frustration many in the administration say they feel about the failure of peace efforts and the accusation by Israel and some of its Washington allies that President Barack Obama hasn’t been a loyal friend.”

“It’s so easy to make a mistake in this. Choosing Edwards was a mistake because Dick could have helped us in Ohio in a way that Edwards could not, and Dick would have done better in the vice-presidential debate.”

— Robert Shrum, quoted by the New York Times, acknowledging that advising John Kerry to pick John Edwards over Dick Gephardt as his running mate in 2004 was a mistake.

Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the Republican presidential campaign raises awkward questions abroad about the reliability of the United States, Yahoo News reports.

Said Kerry: “They cannot believe it. I think it is fair to say that they’re shocked. They don’t know where it’s taking the United States of America.”

He added: “It upsets people’s sense of equilibrium about our steadiness, about our reliability, and to some degree I must say to you, some of the questions, the way they’re posed to me, it’s clear to me that what’s happening is an embarrassment to our country.”

“John Kerry has broken Hillary Clinton’s marks for miles traveled and total flight time as secretary of state… With a year to go, he looks set to smash almost every travel record in U.S. diplomacy,” the AP reports.

Gov. Chris Christie lashed out at Secretary of State John Kerry for suggesting the terrorists who attacked a French satirical newspaper this year had “rationale,” the Newark Star Ledger reports.

Kerry told diplomats “there was a sort of particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of — not a legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow and say, ‘okay, they’re really angry because of this and that.'”

Responded Christie: “He needs to get some sleep and shut up. That’s disgraceful.”

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who praised John Kerry’s nomination as Secretary of State and raved about his “exemplary statesmanship” and “indefatigable persistence,” is now one of Kerry’s biggest critics, Politico reports.

In recent months McCain has branded Kerry a “human wrecking ball,” urged him to “recognize reality,” called him “delusional” and said he has “accomplished nothing except mileage as secretary of state.” Last month, for good measure, he suggested that he considers Iran’s Supreme Leader a more believable source on the nuclear talks than Kerry.

New York Times: “With a deadline approaching, Mr. Kerry thought the opportunity could be lost unless the Iranians finally offered a breakthrough compromise. But Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, came with little new. Frustrated, Mr. Kerry said there was no way the United States would accept a deal that did not curb Iran’s ability to produce enough fuel for a bomb within a year. The conversation grew heated. The two men, patricians in their own cultures and unaccustomed to shouting, found themselves in the kind of confrontation they had avoided during multiple negotiating sessions over the past year.”

Said one American official: “This was the first time there were raised voices and some unpleasant exchanges.”

About Political Wire

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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